A Word of Warning!
@whiteheather39 (24403)
United States
August 16, 2010 7:17pm CST
I have just received an email supposedly from The Bank of America.
Subject: Bank Of America Online Alert Update Your Information
This raised a red flag with me so I forwarded this email to Bank of American and within 15 minutes received the following reply from them:
Thank you for contacting Bank of America to report a suspicious email. Through our research, we can confirm that the email you received was a “phishing,” or fraudulent email. Bank of America is working hard to shut down the fraudulent website.
Phishers obtain information from consumers by using fake, look-alike sites to obtain customer information. Visitors to the site– mistaking it for legitimate– submit their personal information, which can end up in the wrong hands.
If you did not submit information to the fraudulent site, you do not need to take any additional action. If you did submit information, it is possible that your information could be used to commit identity theft. Bank of America customers should call the phone number listed on their statement or go to Contact Us at www.bankofamerica.com.
I just wanted to let you all know if you get this email do not click on any links within the fraudulent email.
Are you careful when receiving email asking for your personal information??
3 people like this
18 responses
@TheCatLady (4691)
• Israel
17 Aug 10
I get those all the time. I don't have an American bank account, so I know they must be fake. They are usually such a bad attempt at fishing, even an iddiot should know they are fake.
I have gotten some really high quality pay pal ones. If I was just a bit stupider, I'd think they are real. They used a template from paypay and all but the one phishing link requesting information are really linked to paypay.
1 person likes this
@whiteheather39 (24403)
• United States
17 Aug 10
I am ashamed to admit that 5 years ago I fell for the PayPal one and that caused me a lot of aggravation but thank goodness no cash.
1 person likes this
@whiteheather39 (24403)
• United States
17 Aug 10
Your daughter is not alone. Five years ago I fell for the Pay Pal scam as well and also had to change everything. Within three hours of replying to the email my bank called to let me know that someone was trying to get cash from an ATM machine in Manitoba, Canada !! Luckily I did not lose any cash just the aggravation of having to change everything.
1 person likes this
@TheCatLady (4691)
• Israel
17 Aug 10
Some of the Pay Pal ones are really well done. Everything but the phishing leads back to the real Pay Pal sites. Or sometimes they set up a whole slew of fake Pay Pal sites that look exactly like the real ones, but with a different address.
1 person likes this
@quita88 (3715)
• United States
18 Aug 10
thank you for letting us all know about this scam. I know about phishing due to PayPal.
I get mails from Paypal ever so often that are NOT from PayPal and I hit forward and PayPal always comes back with it's not theirs.
As a matter of face my hubby used his credit card on line and he got scammed a couple of weeks ago.
The card co. called and they went over his purchases and then they cancelled our card. We received our new ones yesterday.
So, it's important to watch your personal info and where you use it.
@whiteheather39 (24403)
• United States
18 Aug 10
I only use my Discover Card for online shopping. For each online purchase you get a different card number which does not allow the vendor to see to your real Discover Card number so it is only good for the one purchase. However for billing purposes from Discover you can see on your statement each individual card number which was allotted for each purpose. Really a great service to deter online scams.
@quita88 (3715)
• United States
19 Aug 10
Thanks for this info. I don't have a Discover card will be asking for one.
I have used my Debit card for my purchases and have had no trouble with it.
The one my husband got in trouble with was over coins........he's a collector and has me order for him on line.
Won't happen again.
I'm getting discover card...thanks !
@Angelgirl16 (2171)
• United States
17 Aug 10
Hi whiteheather39,
Scammers, will try every trick in the book and may even invent some of their own, to get to your personal information. I have been sent, via email, all kind of information which looks very authentic from some institution that I do business with. If I were not a savvy person when it comes to looking out for dishonest people who out to sabotage my financial world, I would have fallen for many of the fake emails that come to me.
By forwarding the email to Bank of America, instead of replying to it, you made the right choice. As often as we hear about dishonest people trying to rob us of our personal data, some people are still very gullible to the point of replying to the emails and are ruined financially. Cleaning up this kind of financial mess can take quite a while.
We should never open emails that we don't trust. Emails stating that you have won a ton of money, but you need to send them money to pay for processing or your need to upgrade your information on your credit card or bank account, you definitely need to be skeptical. I just delete or forward it.
@whiteheather39 (24403)
• United States
17 Aug 10
I belong to the group of people who have been "once bitten twice shy" unfortunately I am now suspicious of everything, not pleasant but at least safe from scammers.
@parrot2010 (812)
•
17 Aug 10
I'm quite scared of those kinds of emails as it can destroy your life if you give them details. As a rult I'm scared of even the genuine emails because the frauds do make it almost identical except for the manner of asking for details. Best thing to do here is to never open an email unless you know for sure it's from your bank, like don't even read the contents. Add your bank's email to the contacts list.
@nobbsy123 (851)
• Australia
17 Aug 10
whats wrong with leaving the email unopened and going to the bank or ring the bank and ask them what the email is about or if it was from them. My bank doesn't even have my email so if i get an email from them i know it isn't from the bank.
@whiteheather39 (24403)
• United States
17 Aug 10
Thank you. It may help even just one person from getting scammed.
1 person likes this
@nobbsy123 (851)
• Australia
17 Aug 10
Oh I cannot see why a bank will ask you for personal information when they should have it already. Sounds simular to the fake paypal emails from a few years ago. I doubt that the problem will ever go away though.
@sona22 (1430)
• India
17 Aug 10
Thanks for your quick action. It is becoming common to us who are using online activities. We forgot the warning of banks and other good financial sites about such email. All the banks are advising their customers not to open their personal information to anyone as the banks are not asks such question. I have faced such problem for my paypal and Liberty Reserve account. But I never replied to them Rather I visited the site of the company by using my browser and seen for any message. I am also lucky enough that every time my PC system security warned me that it a phising.
@picjim (3002)
• India
17 Aug 10
Initially i was tempted to open and know more.Sometimes such mails claim that we have won a lottery.But since 2 years i've been reading that these people are being arrested by the local police.I'm careful in not divulging personal details as these could be misused.
@frontvisions101 (16043)
• Philippines
17 Aug 10
I guess i'll catch it if ever i recieve that e-mail cuz i don't really live in the US. I'm also very particular with giving off personal info in the web. I don't give it off unless i totally know that it's needed and the source is safe.
@whiteheather39 (24403)
• United States
17 Aug 10
This kind of email, it is called phishing (fishing for information) is not just happening in the USA but in many other countries.
1 person likes this
@ANIME123 (2466)
• United States
17 Aug 10
Well I am always careful because yeah bank of america will not ask for something like that so you can assume that it is a fake and that they are just trying to steal information. I don't like people that always try and steal others bank information because that is wrong instead they should get a job and earn money themselves. Very good that you reported it though.
@tomitomi (5429)
• Singapore
17 Aug 10
Thought that was fishing while reading your first line and true enough as I continued. And that was the right thing you did by contacting The Bank of America. Thank you for spreading the word around. Appreciated.
@Thoroughrob (11742)
• United States
17 Aug 10
I will not respond to any email like that. I did get one like that the other day. I just plain delete the things.
@dragon54u (31633)
• United States
17 Aug 10
I never, ever respond to anything like that. If the bank wants something from me, they will call and even then I don't give them anything, I go directly to the bank in person. You can't be too careful these days!
I've gotten lots of emails like that.
@SilverKing (1003)
• Canada
17 Aug 10
This is a scam and a very common scam on the internet is phishing for people to send their personal details straight to them.Basically you should never send information that is personal in an email, banks will never ask for this information and if they do ask it will be a letter in the mail saying for you to come it and give the info.
@ReViewMeMedia (3786)
• United States
17 Aug 10
Your bank will never, ever email you about your personal information. Any email claiming to be your bank is a scam. People fall for this all the time unfortunately. The bank never asks you about your personal information ever.
